City Council SLAMS MTA For Snow Response

MTA officials got a firm scolding from City Council members during a hearing on the department's botched response to December's huge snow storm.

Representatives from the authority admitted "serious failures" during the snow storm, including stranding passengers on an A train for seven hours and allowing 650 buses to get stuck in the snow.

From the New York Times:

"We were lulled into a false sense of security on our own," said Thomas Prendergast, president of New York City Transit, the division that oversees subway and buses. "Nobody led us into that."

Council Speaker Christine Quinn gave MTA officials a tongue lashing. She called the authority's actions "beyond shocking."

"All you had to do was open up the blinds and see that the snow was falling," Quinn said. "Blizzards don't happen every week, but it's not like a swarm of locusts came into New York or something we've never seen."

Prendergast acknowledged two major mistakes: the failure to bring together emergency forces before the storm hit and the decision not to set up a situation room to coordinate the authority's response.

Prendergast promised the authority would conduct a full review of the agency's missteps over the next several weeks.